


Fishing Kit

by ghosthyear



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 02:31:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4504260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghosthyear/pseuds/ghosthyear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mermaid!AU where Percy is in Boy Scouts and doesn't really care for it, and Annabeth is a mermaid who likes watches. Drabble</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fishing Kit

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on tumblr that I sorta (totally) messed with, possible more chapters if anyone is interested?

The thing about fishing with your troop is that no matter what, someone will end up getting pushed in and scaring all the fish away within the first ten minutes.

This time it’s Jeramy, and the troop leader had already brought out a towel by the time they reach the banks. He shivers in a patch of grass a few yards away from the shore while Tim uses his walkie-talkie to ask another troop leader to bring a spare set of clothes out.

“If that happens again we’re all going back, and you’ll do fifty marches each!” Tim yells, the same threat he uses every week when someone gets pushed in. Percy isn’t exactly sure what marches are.

A few minutes later Cole screams “I got bit!” and stumbles ashore, red berry remains hidden in his hand and foot covered in squished ones.

“Do you want to be carried back to camp and have your mom come pick you up?” Tim asks, bending down to look at the smashed berries. “That looks pretty deep. You might need to have it amputated,”

Cole stutters, backing up. “Oh uh, actually I think it looks pretty good. Maybe it was just a scratch, I’ll go wash it off.” He says, and runs back towards the lake.

Percy opens his fishing kit, taking out a massive ball of twisted line and trying to untangle it. He gives up after a few minutes after he pricks his finger on a hook apparently hidden in the mess. “Fuck,” he mutters, sucking on the pinprick of blood appearing.

He picks his kit back up, ducking through leaves and branches as he walks along the rockier part of shore a bit away. There’s a small overcliff he’d found while lost on a canoe trip last spring, and it’s always got snails and crawfish on the rocks surrounding it.

The troop doesn’t go back until a few hours before nightfall, so as long as he keeps an ear open and sneaks back before they leave, no one has to know.

Percy throws a rock into the water, watching as stirs up dead leaves sunken to the bottom. He opens his fishing kit again, digging through until he found his pocket knife.

He leaves the kit there and goes back into the woods, whittling notches into a stick and knotting a shoelace around the Y in the middle and going back to the pool. He finds a few smaller stones and shoots them off, tiny stones making ripples in the lake.

The stones within arm’s reach quickly disappear and he gets bored, taking off his shoes and walking through the shallow water and getting the hem of his pants wet.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” he says, scrambling upwards as a trail of bubbles grow closer to the shore. They’ve had classes on how none of the fish are dangerous, but he isn’t taking chances.

At first, he thinks it’s moving seaweed, until it grows closer and he sees scales and long blond hair. Stopping a few feet from where Percy is crouched, a girl pops her head out of the water, blond hair dripping water down the sides of her face.

“No.” Percy scoots a few inches closer to the shore. “Not happening.”

“Stop throwing pebbles,” she says, hands appearing from the water to throw a handful at him. “You don’t like it, and neither do I. Stop.”

“Holy shit,” he says, brushing water droplets off his pants. “Are you a mermaid?”

Her tail- an actual tail- comes up, flinging water at him. “Sorry!” he yells, moving backwards to avoid the worst of it.

“You’re quite rude.” She says, ducking back under water.

“I’m sorry!” Percy yells, just as she appears again. “I don’t uh. Most people don’t really believe you exist.”

The girl pushes wet blond hair out of her eyes. “That’s the point. So you can’t tell anyone, ever.” She looks over, down to where a few boys sit at the end of a dock fishing further down the shore. “I’ll be in so much trouble, and we can do much worse than just throw pebbles.” She points a finger at him, and Percy sees translucent webbing between them.

“I won’t tell, promise. They probably wouldn't believe me anyway. What’s your name?” _Casual, Percy. Did I eat any mushrooms before I went out?_

“I’m Annabeth.” Annabeth says, ducking under water once more, just the tip of her head visible.

“I’m Percy. Are there uh, other mermaids?” Please don’t splash me.

She doesn't splash, instead swimming closer to rest her arms where the shore suddenly gives way into deeper water. “There are other humans, aren’t there?”

“Oh,” Percy says, realizing the gills on the side of her neck for the first time. _Mermaids are pretty damn rude, who knew._

“What’s that?” She asks, water dripping off her hand when she points to his watch. Around her own wrist is braided seaweed, dark green twined with purple. She doesn’t look like the old cartoons pictured mermaids to, instead bright orange scales coming up almost to her shoulders where they fade into softer-looking skin, almost like what Percy remembers dolphins he saw at Sea World having.

He holds out his hand, and she lightly taps the top plastic of it, leaving droplets of water. “It tells the time.” The digital number turns to 3:56

“Oh,” she says. “We don’t have those,” she turns his hand over, fingers ended in sharp points as she tries to get at the clasp, holding it up to the sunlight and looking at the back. “How does it tell time?”

Annabeth lets go, diving back underwater for a few seconds before returning. _Lucky it’s waterproof, don’t drop it._ “It’s got a battery, something to make it work.” Percy answers. “Why do you dive under every few minutes?”

“I can’t be out too long, or I’ll shrink up. There’s all sorts of stories about mermaids who tried to trick humans but ended up turning to dust, so I don’t like to risk it. Plus, it’s too hot up here.” She gathers her hair and twists it atop her head, water running down the side of her face. “Also, don’t worry. I’m not trying to trick you,” she adds as an afterthought.

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Percy says, tucking his feet a bit further away from the water’s edge.

Down shore, he hears yelling. Annabeth startles, ducking under again quickly and swimming back. “It’s okay!” Percy calls, standing up and zipping his fishing case closed. “They’re far away, but it mean’s they’re leaving, and I gotta go too.”

Annabeth comes closer, only poking her head out. “Okay then.”

The sound of a whistle carries across the lake. “It was uh- nice meeting you,” Percy says, standing up and brushing off his pants. _This entire thing might be a result of drugs, but hey, it was nice._

“You too,” she says as he starts back into the forest. “Hey!” Annabeth holds out his watch.

“It’s okay, keep it.” Percy says, looking back. “Bye!” He calls, rushing off into the forest.“  _If I come back tomorrow to find my watch sitting in a small pool of water with some pebbles, it’s definitely a hallucination.”_

He stumbles back just as everyone's moving out, sliding into place besides Jacob and lying about having to pee.

“Did you miss?” Jacob asks, and Percy sees the dark splotches of water all over his shirt and pants.

“No way, just lake splashes,” he says. _Fuck mermaids._


End file.
